This invention relates to a cart and portable work tray combination for the transportation and storage of materials, supplies, tools, and implements, and for their use in construction of fishing lures.
The making of fishing lures is an avocation, and sometimes a business, practiced by a large number of people, and is frequently done in the home. The production of these lures involves a large variety of materials, some of which are specified by custom and others which are the result of individual creativity. The materials include, but are not limited to, hair, wool, thread, silk, nylon, rubber, paint, feathers, lead wire, lead foil, mylar, glue, lacquer, rubber, various fabrics, and a large number and variety of shapes and sizes of hooks.
The objective, of course, is to use the hook as a base upon which the various materials are attached in such a fashion as to entice a fish to take the lure in its mouth. To accomplish the mechanical process of attaching the materials to the hook a wide variety of tools of both commercial and individual design are required. These tools include but are not limited to bobbins, bodkins, tweezes, pliers, hair stackers, wing burners, scissors, and a vise to hold the hook during the various procedures required in fashioning the lure.
The nature of the various operations of lure making, the extremely small size of some of the hooks and the specific and restrictive detail of arrangement of the materials upon the hooks normally requires the use of special lighting and magnification of the immediate work area. Various commercial lamps and magnifiers are sold for this purpose. They are typically supported by clamp mounts or heavily weighted pedestals. These lamps and magnifiers frequently impede the tying process because they occupy a surface position that would otherwise be used for the arrangement of tools, materials, hooks, and finished products. The use of clamps and heavily weighted pedestals may also mar the surface of tables and other tying sites of furniture quality finish or glass surfaces.
The number, variety, disparity in shapes and sizes, and fragility makes storage of many of the hair, feather and other natural materials difficult to organize and protect. Typically they may be dispersed through out the home in an unorganized manner in types of containers, drawers, boxes, cans, and bags. These locations and lack of organization make retrieval inconvenient and difficult for the user wishing to have a number of them at one location while making lures, or to perform an inventory or other purpose.
After overcoming the difficulties of getting the implements and provisions for fashioning the lure assembled and organized, a work site must be selected. The requirement for a site to fashion fishing lures is usually met by use of some rough table or bench where the vise can be set in place. The vise is commonly mounted, by use of a clamp, to a surface which will not suffer by the marring effect of the clamp. Because of the number and diversity of materials and the corresponding number, size, bulk, and weight of containers, it is often difficult or impossible to transport or move containers, tools, and materials all at one time to the fly tying site.
The process of creating fishing lures results in the generation of large amounts of waste materials and trash such as bits of wool yarn, finely cut hair and feathers, and lead residue among others. Commonly used methods for waste management are jury rigged and limited in implementation (e.g. a cardboard box or trash can on the floor beneath the vise requiring the success of a relatively long and uncontrolled vertical drop for the waste to be successfully captured). Items not successfully completing the long unguided drop normally fall to the floor where they may be further disbursed into the surrounding area, or captured in carpeting and form a site of concentrated waste. Because floor mounted waste receptacles must sit directly under the vise they also are thus positioned in the way of the worker's seating forming a barrier which the worker must straddle to achieve proximity to the vise and work area. The trash boxes are liable to be struck with the foot or chair, or otherwise overturned, thus scattering the undesirable waste and creating additional problems.
Most importantly, there is also the lack of any provision for moving only the construction operation and any waste management system as a unit and in its entirety, apart from the main tool and supply staging area, to another location in a single move. The vise must ordinarily be demounted or removed from its current location, and the light, magnifier, trash can and other tools and materials are all moved as individual items as well.
The use of a table, bench or other floor-standing work surface restricts the tier to that surface at the selected location. Mobility of the entire work site enhances the option of the tier to select a room or other general location, but does not remove the restriction of continuing to have to use that table or bench work surface. In addition, a chair or other seating support which matches the table or bench must be available to support the worker during the fabrication process. This results in the requirement for two relatively matched pieces of furniture to accomplish the production of a lure. Chairs or stools with leg braces across the front may be unsuitable because of the necessity of using some type of waste receptacle placed below the vise and in front of the leading edge of the work surface. Such situations result in restricting the tier's ability to achieve a comfortable position in relation to the vise and further restricts the type of chair or stool which can be used.